After both his mother and uncle die, Jean, a hunchback, inherits a beautiful estate in the French countryside. Jean is from the city and is determined to make a go of living in the country, along with his wife and daughter. Unfortunately for him, his neighbors scheme against him in order to obtain the property, which has a hidden spring.

This is a wonderful movie from beginning to end. The setting is so beautiful it’ll make you want to move to France. If you decide to rent Jean de Florette, be aware that it is the first of two movies which should be watched together. Manon of the Spring is the movie that picks up where Jean de Florette leaves off. You will want to watch Manon because of the way Jean ends. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

No, this isn’t a post about Kevin Bacon. I just wanted to complain about the weather. It was 13 degrees when I woke up this morning, and only 4 degrees when I arrived at work.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Alaska. I love a lot of things about this state. I do not love cold, dry weather. I do not love being outside in the winter. I don’t ski, I don’t go for walks when it’s below 40 degrees. As you can imagine, I spend a lot of my life indoors. Give me a warm, sunny beach any day, and I’m happy.

Hey, my first poll! Do me a favor and vote. You can vote for more than one, if you like.

I admit that I haven’t given this site my full attention lately. I can explain, I really can. You see, I’ve been chosen as one of the lucky few to be a moderator over at the Mudflats Forum. I now get to have a behind-the-scenes look at the forum and all it’s inner-workings. I love the other mods and admins over there, and I hold them all in high esteem. I am fortunate to be allowed behind the curtain, so to speak, into the inner sanctum. Please, join us at the forum. It is what you make of it, and personally, I’m having a blast. You are all welcome to come and enjoy the ongoing discussion.

In other news, this morning I spent an hour and a half in 25 degree weather (my hands are still numb from the cold- kind of makes it hard to type) at an Alaska for Obama event. This time, we were instructed to come wearing black pants and ready to make a larger-than-life Obama sign out of human bodies. Good thing I happened to wear my blue down jacket, because soon after I arrived at the Park Strip, I realized that I must have missed part of the email. There were a suspicious number of people wearing red. Especially for an Obama event.

So we split up into three sections: those wearing red, those wearing white, and those wearing blue. We stood around for awhile while the organizers did whatever it is that organizers do. Finally we got into formation. We started with the American flag, and then moved into the Obama sign. It was fun but very cold. I should’ve worn my hat, and my heavier gloves.

Here are the pictures I took at the event. I had heard that the pictures and/or video will be posted over at the Obama site, but I don’t know when or if that will happen. If I hear anything, I’ll post it here or over at the Alaskan Lodge in the Forum.

Oh, and I guess there were about 1,000 people there. Yippee!

If you squint, you can see the guy with the camera in the hotel room

A real Alaskan bear

Senator Obama mingling with the crowd

UPDATE: We made the paper! There’s an article and picture of the flag from the hotel window here.

Some will say that Colin Powell is giving Barack Obama his vote simply because he is African-American. Watch this video and tell me that General Powell hasn’t given his endorsement a serious amount of thought.